Assignment ll: CSS Boogaloo

It is all about putting information together in sensible ways that follow certain conventions most people understand and know how to use. Essentially, information architecture is the way information is organized within individual webpages and how web pages are organized within the context of the larger site. Information in information architecture does not only refer to textual content, but also things like images, resource files, site file structure, and process flow (navigation). Information architecture tasks include organizing information, establishing a site structure, and designing a visual presentation of the information.

The three tasks noted above (organizing, establishing, and designing) are broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks or subtasks.

• Organizing involves five basic steps as defined by Horton and Lynch (p 72). These steps include inventorying content; defining a hierarchical outline and controlled vocabulary; chunking information into logical units; drawing diagrams that show site and page structure; and analysis/testing of site organization.


• Establishing a site structure is related to organization, but is concerned with the specifics of how these conceptual organizational units are connected to one another. Sites are typically structured in one of three ways: sequences (direct and linear navigation of site content; one page leads to another rather than one leading to all), hierarchies (one page leads to several mutually exclusive pages or page sequences), webs (a less restrictive structure that lets any page connect to any other page; users aren't forced to follow a linear path).


• Designing the visual presentation builds upon the established site structure, but focuses on realizing the conceptual organization and flow of information. This is completed in several contexts and ways. Site/page structure or navigation can be visualized using flowchart-like site diagrams, wireframe mockups (simple, low fidelity examples showing how content groups will be arranged; a template), and site file structure (how content is organized and stored on a server).

All of these tasks rely on existing conventions to make pages and sites easy to understand. You do not have to organize information using these conventions, but they let you present information in a way that an audience expects, is comfortable with, and can readily consume.

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Tough guy, eh? Don't hurt me, but I must respectfully disagree. Information architecture is important. Don't get me wrong this might seem boring, but your site will be an unusable wasteland if you rely on scatter shot organization and avoid planning. The above categories represent a general guide for organization and structure, not content and design style. These might seem restrictive, but they can be changed to create radically different experiences without affecting the underlying information architecture. However, if we stray far away from or ignore any one of these categories/steps, a site's effectiveness and sustained traffic will suffer horribly.

If this site didn't consider (at least briefly) the above steps, you (the reader/visitor) would have no idea what to expect from one page to the next. You may click on one link and find yourself on a page that has nothing to do with the link's label or be faced with disjointed content. It's like taking the pages out of a book, mixing them up, removing any sort of reference points, and expecting someone to find what they need. All the information is there, but the reader doesn't know how to get to anything. Sure, we could release something like that and let people sift through the pages, but they have no idea what's going to be on the next page or how to find information they may need. Randomly throwing things together might be an interesting bit of experimental art, but going through content in this way is time-consuming, frustrating, and likely to drive people away.

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